SOME consultants are making more than £100,000 a year in overtime from the NHS, figures suggest.
Documents seen by the BBC reveal senior doctors frequently earn about £600 for four extra hours of work, on top of their salary and bonuses.
Basic pay for consultants in England stands at almost £90,000 a year on average, paying for 10 four-hour blocks (full-time) a week.
Those consultants who do private work are also obliged to do an extra four-hour session paid at their basic rate if their NHS trust needs them.
Any extra work beyond that attracts a higher rate, with many trusts paying between £500 and £700 for four-hour sessions, the documents show.
The rates are set by individual health trusts so there is no national picture of how much overtime is costing.
At Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, one ear, nose and throat specialist made more than £105,000 in 2009/2010, the BBC reported.
Another three consultants from other areas made in excess of £80,000.
Overtime payments have almost doubled at Coventry and Warwickshire, to £2.35 million in 2009/10.
A spokeswoman for the trust said such payments – known as waiting list initiative (WLI) payments – were unavoidable to ensure patients received “timely” care.
She added the trust always sought to use resources “as responsibly as possible”.
The BBC also reported that managers at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust tried to reduce the rate for overtime for orthopaedic surgeons from £1,000 to £500 for a four-hour session.
But minutes from official meetings showed consultants would be “downing tools” if that happened and managers had to compromise on a fee of £750.
Ed Burns, from Newton Europe, a consultancy which has carried out work for NHS trusts to improve productivity, said poor job planning was the most common cause of high overtime payments.But some consultants did not want to give them up and would under-book theatre sessions to make sure there was a need for overtime.
